MIDDAY (GB) (Oasis Dream [GB]), the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1)
winner who was a close runner-up last year, is on course for the October 15
Champion S. (Eng-G1), held this year at Ascot.
The six-time Grade/Group 1 queen will look to turn the tables on stablemate
TWICE OVER (GB) (Observatory), who collared her late in the August 17 Juddmonte
International (Eng-G1) at York, and is himself bidding for an unprecedented
third straight Champion trophy.
Sir Henry Cecil commented on the Juddmonte homebreds following their Friday
works.
“Midday retires at the end of the year,” Cecil revealed. “The distance is
fine for her (the Champion’s 1 1/4 miles), she will go on faster ground and is
very well in herself after having had a bit of break.
“I was really pleased with her this morning. I was very easy with her. She is
about three gallops away from being absolutely there.
“If Shane (Featherstonhaugh) had asked her, she probably would have picked up
and gone to the other horse, but she is not quite there yet and I did not want
to ask her too much too quickly.
“That gallop will have brought her on a lot. She has got better, more
sensible and happier as she has got older. She has been very unlucky in some
ways not to win more.
“If we take the (2009) Oaks (Eng-G1), she only just beaten in a photo-finish
— being pushed over a little bit. That would have been another Group 1.
“In the Breeders’ Cup last year, the turf track on the inside at Churchill
Downs was so tight — twice as tight as Chester I would think — and the
Japanese filly (Red Desire [Manhattan Cafe]) held her in all the way around.
Midday could never do what she can do. I had to ask her all at once. I think she
was unlucky not to win that.
“Then you take this year’s Coronation Cup (Eng-G1). Maybe she went too soon,
thought she had done enough and got collared on the line after quickening up to
go three lengths clear.
“Take the Juddmonte as well, she was being led by the (Aidan) O’Brien horse
(Windsor Palace [Danehill Dancer]) who then left her in front earlier than
expected. So she has been unlucky not to win three or four more Group 1s.
“She has been a great friend — a terrific filly and mare. I would quite
safely be able to say that she is as good now, or better, than she has ever
been.”
Cecil is expecting a big effort from Twice Over, who would make history by
winning a third successive Champion.
“He ran very well in the Prince of Wales’s (Eng-G1) last year when finishing
well from a long way back behind another horse owned by the Prince (Khalid
Abdullah’s Byword [Peintre Celebre]). He is a horse who gets better as the year
goes on. He is really coming to his best now.
“He is working very well and is nearly there. I will put him back a little
now. He worked beautifully this morning. I would like good ground at Ascot for
him because he hasn’t got the best of feet.
“I would think he would run very, very well. I am not quite sure what is
going to be in the race. Both of mine deserve to run.
“I cannot send Twice Over to America,” Cecil added regarding a Breeders’ Cup
bid, “because I don’t think he will act on the dirt, so this is the race for
him.
“The jockeys will remain the same in the QIPCO Champion S.,” he noted,
referring to Tom Queally on Midday and Ian Mongan on Twice Over.